To the Point

Will Bush Win Votes for the Capture of Saddam Hussein?

The capture and humiliation of Saddam Hussein, which mark the start of a new era and a turning point in the occupation of Iraq, have meant three days of triumph for President Bush. His Democratic challengers have been squabbling among themselves, struggling to find the bad side of good news but, with almost a year to go until November-s election, the real political impact has yet to be seen. Was the fall of Saddam family business for George Bush? Will the demise of a tyrant make it harder for Democrats to attack the President-s conduct of the war in Iraq? We look at the early polls and the fallout for Democratic front-runner Howard Dean with a national pollster, a former speechwriter and policy advisor to President Bush Sr., and journalists from The Nation, USA Today and The Weekly Standard. Making News: Saddam-s Capture and US-Europe Relations After winning agreement from French President Jacques Chirac and West German Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder, former Secretary of State James Baker now travels to Russia to get it to help Iraq-s reconstruction by relieving its debt. Is the detention of Saddam Hussein making his task easier? The Christian Science Monitor's Howard La Franchi is following the efforts to stabilize the Gulf and repair damaged transatlantic relations. Reporter's Notebook: Saddam, the Paranoid Narcissist Former President George H. W. Bush once compared Saddam Hussein to Adolph Hitler, but one student of political leaders says Saddam is much more like Joseph Stalin. Richard Dekmejian, a professor of political science at the University of Southern California, is working on the psycho-political profile, Profiles in Power-but it-s not what the former dictator-s friends had in mind.